The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-09-21

ignominious death where all the force
of hell's fury was hurled against
the cross, was the introduction Of that
religion which is yet to be the earth's i
deliverance from guilt and suffering, and
her everlasting enforcement among the /
municipalities Of heaven. The state has
sometimes said to the church: .-Come,
let me take your hand and / will help I
you" What has been the result? The |
church has gone back and has lost its
estate of holiness and has become IN /
effective At other times the state has /
said to the church: II viii crush you.
What has been the result: After the /
storms have spent their fury, the church, |
so far from having lost any OF ITS force. |
has increased and is worth infinitely |
more after the assault than before it. |
| The church is far more indebted TO the |
opposition of civil government than to Its
approval The fires of the stake have |
only been the torches which Christ held |
| in his hand by the light Of which the |
church has marched TO her present posi-
ton. In the sound of racks and nipple !
ments of torture hear the rImbling of
the wheels of the Gospel chariot. Scat
folds of martyrdom have been the stairs
| by which the church has assembled. Aqua
Furthermore, our subject impresses US
that sins viii come to exposure. Long,
| long ago, had these brothers sold Joseph
into Egypt They had suppressed the
crime, and it was profound secret well
kept by the brothers. But suddenly the
secret is out. The old father hears that
his son is in Egypt, having been sold
! there by the malice of his own brothers.
| How their cheeks must have burned and
| their hearts sunk at the flaming out of
| this suppressed crime. The smallest in
EQUITY has thousand tongues, and they
will blab out AN exposure. Saul was sent
10 destroy the Canaanites, their sheep
and their oxen. But when he got down
there among the pastures he saw some
fine sheep and oxen too fat to kill, and so
he thought he would steal them. He
drove them toward home, but stopped to
report to the prophet how well he had
executed his commission, when in the
distance the sheep began to bleat and the
oxen to below. The secret was out, and
Samuel said to the blushing and con-
founded Saul: ''What means the beating
of the sheep that / hear and the lowing
of the cattle?" Aye, my hearers, you
cannot keep an iniquity quiet. AT just
the wrong time the sheep will bleat and
the oxen will below. Achan cannot
steal the Babylonish garment without
getting stoned TO death, nor Benedict Ar
mold betray his country without having
his neck stretched. Look over the police
arrests, these thieves, these burglars,
these adulterers, these counterfeiters,
these highwaymen, these assassins.
They all thought they could bury
their iniquity so deep down that
it would never come to resurTec-
ton. But there was some shoe that an
swered to the print in the sand, some
false keys found in possession, some
bloody knife that whispered of the deed,
and the public indignation, and the ana
thema of outraged law hurled him into
the Tombs or hoisted him on the gallows.
| At the close of the battle between the
dauphin of France and the Helvetians,
! Burchard Monk was so elated with the
victory that he lifted his helmet to look
off upon the field, when wounded sol
der hurled stone that struck bis uncov-
cred forehead and he fell. Sin will al
ways leave some point exposed, and there
is no safety in iniquity. Francis i, king
of France, was discussing how it was best
to get his army into Italy. Amaril, the
court fool, sprang out from the corner
| anu Nelu 10 tlft MIX anu IDS olellL OllICIEs
"You had better be thinking how you
will get your army back out of Italy
after once you have entered In other
words, it is easier for us to get into sin
than to get out of it. Whitefield was
riding on horseback in lonely way with
some missionary money in a sack fast
ened to the saddle bags. A highwayman
sprang out from the thicket and put his
hand out toward the gold, when White
field turned upon him and said: THAT
belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, touch it
if you dare, and the villain fell back
empty handed into the thicket. o, the
power of conscience! If offended, it be-
comes Gods avenging minister. Do not
think that you can hide any great and
protracted sin in your hearts. In an I'M
guarded moment it will slip off of the lip,
or some slight occasion may for mo-
ment set ajar this door of hell that you
wanted to keep closed. But suppose that
in this life you hide it, and you get along
with that transgression burning in your
heart as a ship on fire within for days
may hinder the flame from bursting out
by keeping down the hatchways, vet at
last, in the Judgment, that iniquity will
blaze out before the throne of God and
the universe.
Furthermore, learn from this subject
the inseparable connection between all
events, however remote. Lord Hastings
was beheaded one year after he had
caused the death of the queens children,
in the very month, the very day, the very
hour and the very moment. There is
wonderful precision in the divine iudg-
ments. The universe is only one thought
of God. Those things which seem frag-
mentary and isolated are only different
parts of that one great thought. How far
apart seemed these two events-Joseph
sold to the Arabian merchants and the
rulership of Egypt Yet you see in what
mysterious way God connected the two
In one plan. So all events are linked to-
gether. You who are aged can look back
and group together thousand things in
your life that once seemed isolated One
undivided chain of events reached from
the Garden of Eden to the cross of Cal
vary, and thus up to heaven. There is a
relation between the smallest insect that
huns III the summer air and the arch
angel on his throne. God can trace d.
rect ancestral line from the blue jay that
last spring built its nest in tree behind
the house to some one of that flock of
birds which, when Noah hoisted the ark's
window, with whirl and dash of bright
wings went out to sing over Mount
Ararat. The tulips that bloomed this
summer in the flower bed were nursed
of last winters snowfiakes The fur
thest star on one side the universe
could not look TO the furthest star on
the other side and say: ssYou are no re-
lation to me;" fer from that bright orb a
voice of light would ring across the
heavens responding: Yes, yes; we are
sisters" Sir Sidney Smith in prison was
playing lawn tennis in the yard and the
ball flew over the wall. Another ball
containing letters was thrown back, and
so communication was opened with the
outside world, and Sidney Smith escaped
In time to defeat Bonaparte's Egyptian
expedition. What a small accident con-
nected with what vast result! Sir Robert
Peel from a pattern he drew ON the
back of pewter dinner plate got
suggestions of that which led to the
important invention by which calico
Is printed. Nothing in Gods universe
swings at loose ends. Accidents are only
God S way of turning leaf in the book
of his eternal DEGREES. From our cradle
to our grave there is a path all marked
out. Each event in our life is connected
with every other event in our life. Our
loss may be the most direct road to our
gain Our defeats and victories are twin
brothers. The whole direction of your
life was changed by something which at
the time seemed to you trif1e. while
some occurrence which seemed tremen-
deus affected You but little. The Rev.
Dr. Kennedy. Of Basking Ridge, N. j..
went into his pulpit one Sabbath and by
a strange freak of memory forgot his
subject and forgot his text, and in great